


Character Study: Éponine

by TheBraveHobbit



Series: Taut [11]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Gen, Genderfluid Character, Genderqueer Character, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:39:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBraveHobbit/pseuds/TheBraveHobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern!AU Eponine Thenardier: Suvivor, Pickpocket, Realist</p>
            </blockquote>





	Character Study: Éponine

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my sandbox-style Modern!AU: Taut  
> Additional content can be found on my tumblr: elfjolras.tumblr.com

**Modern!AU Eponine Thenardier: Suvivor, Pickpocket, Realist**

> _“Your lips taste like lies today.”_   
>  _“I never lie.”_   
>  _“Never?”_   
>  _“Well, only to the school. And to my parents. And to survive. Never to you.”_

_Sugar and spice and everything nice._ That’s how Eponine knows ze’s not always a girl. More often than not, ze’s snakes and snails and puppy dog tails. Sometimes ze’s neither. Sometimes ze’s both, because who says you can’t be spice and snails all at once? There’s not much sweetness left in Eponine, but ze doesn’t really miss it. Cosette is sweet enough for both of them, anyway.

For the most part Eponine lets people assume whatever they want; it works to hir advantage more often than not. Half the time they’re right and the other half ze just doesn’t care. And ze considers hirself a sister, not a brother, because Gavroche deserves a sister to at least try to care for him, since he hardly has a mother. That woman made it known early she had no patience for sons, and she had spent her affections for her daughters before they’d even hit puberty.

At seventeen, Eponine is really too young to be trying to look after anyone, but hir parents can’t be bothered to remember (or care) what day their rent is due, or when the car needs to be inspected, or that Gavroche has walked the soles out of his shoes, or to realize that Azelma’s hand-me-downs won’t fit him much longer. Azelma helps where she can, but thirteen is not much better than twelve. So Eponine waits tables and sweeps floors and stocks shelves and picks pockets. Ze kisses people ze doesn’t like because ze knows ze can’t afford their bad side. Ze trusts no one. Ze does hir homework on the bus before class and sleeps hir way through lectures and sasses the headmaster when he criticizes hir performance in school. Ze has more important things to worry about than test scores.

Ze talks about leaving sometimes, and it’s never clear if ze’s dreaming or joking. It hardly seems to matter, because hir parents break their probation and disappear. The state wants to take Gavroche and Azelma away, like it took their little brothers away, unless Eponine can prove that ze can provide for them. The idea is laughable; it’s never been anyone  _but_ Eponine, since the day Gavroche was born. It makes no difference where their parents are.

Eponine considers. Ze could let them go. Ze could toss hir hands in the air, spin around and disappear just like their parents. Gavroche and Azelma are so used to being left, they couldn’t possibly blame hir. Besides, it’s not as if they wouldn’t be cared for. The state would snap up hir siblings and feed them into the system. Who’s to say that’s better or worse what ze can do by them?


End file.
